Thatcher Park Off Leash Dog Park

This dog park is one of the better ones in Oregon. While it isn’t the largest, it has large areas for both small/​timid dogs and the bigger dogs, which is nice. They have some ability/​play equipment for the pups in both areas which is very fun! There’s water and bags. They have a very small winter area that I wish they would expand somehow! That’s the only drawback with this park. I only visit in the summer because of this, but unlike Hondo, the off leash area is part of a city park and therefore has a large parking lot.
The people who come here seem to always be very friendly and that’s nice to look forward to! It’s definitely a less trafficked park than Hondo or Tabor.
Love this park during the summer months! Our go to place.

This is a really nice dog park. The large dog area has an exercise course which is super fun to play with. The only negative is that other dog owners don’t read the rules. When we got to the park there were small dogs in the large dog area and they had toys which is also against the rules.

The dog park is nice, but the dogs/​owners that attend are not so much. My dog was attacked by a vicious pitbull mix and the owner did nothing to help. I had to run from the other side of the park and my wife watched in shock as our dog was in the jaws of this vicious animal being thrown around like a rag doll. Since the irresponsible and moronic owner was so unhelpful I had to myself run and pry the other dog’s jaws open to remove by bloodied dog from it’s grip. We had to rush to the Tanasbourne Emergency Vet (which I do recommend). $ 700 and 10 stitches later our dog will survive (baring infection) but the image of him almost dying at the hands of a horrible dog owner (I don’t necessarily blame the dog and will keep my opinion of pitbulls to myself) I will not go back to this park. Everyone there said it never happens there, but nothing ever happens until it does and if you see a middle-​aged white man about 5’10″ with dark hair with a brown black mottled pitbull mix I would report him to the authorities and keep your pets and young children away.

This is such a great dog park! I’m so thankful to live so close! There are two separated enclosed areas for large and small dogs. There are buckets in each cage that the community generously contributes grocery bags for dog bags in case you forget yours. They also have water available during good weather months.
There are some owners that bring their little dog into the big dog area. (Guilty!) but my dog was raised with big dogs and prefers them. However, typical people their dogs are friendly and they really aren’t. You can’t stop them so this park allows others to go to the other enclosure so you can still exercise your dog safely.

Great place to take your dog but if you have a big and little dog be careful because some big dog owners bring dogs that are aggressive to anyone not their size. Please DON’T bring an aggressive dog unless you mazal it.

This is a great dog park and thank you Boy Scouts for making it all possible. There is room for improvement though but it’s not even a year old yet so that makes sense. The winter area could use a water spigot like the summer areas have. People have to bring in their own water which is a pain and most people don’t bring it so sometimes we run out. The city is working with the dog park users to bring in bark so it can be spread around by volunteers. It seems to be helping. There is a Facebook page you can join called: Friends of the Forest Grove Dog Park. They are trying to get organized so they can run some events at the park. That would be totally cool. The group should help in getting volunteers to help keep the park in great shape. Nice people that come here with great dogs. Usually there are no problems but occasionally there is a bully that can get aggressive. My dogs haven’t had any problems yet and I’ve met some wonderful friends there.

Nice job, overall! Yeah for boy scouts who made this dog park happen!
I think they thought of most everything & no bad experiences so am happy with this dog park.
The details:
This is a good dog park!
The main issue is that there are decent gaps under PARTS of the fence in the little dog section which would definitely be a problem for chihuahuas, other small dogs. There is also the ability for a small dog to dig under the fence easily and get out. Mine can’t get out, though, so I am okay. Note that they do not have those gaps at all in the big dog section.
Update: As of June 2011. New automatic dog watering dishes!!! You guys are awesome! Thank you for listening and modifying! Perfect size, perfect for the need! (see photo I uploaded)
There is a walk-​on-​bark path in the big dog section, but not in the little dog section, but little dog section is sloped, also. Then again? The little dog section does not suffer from water run off.
The «Winter Section» has walk on bark all over it, and it is long which is good for chasing the ball which we do a lot of. It has fabulous lights over it, unlike the rest of the park. I have heard it can get pretty dark.
Bring your own plastic bags (there are huge signs everywhere stating that). So far, I have not seen people not pick up after their dogs. I read that some people donate bags at this park so TODAY there were some bags posted near the trash cans but this is not in the budget from what I read. Always bring your own bags!
They have home-​grade gates for the dog sections. I can never tell which gate swings out. I really hope they budget to upgrade to solid cyclone style gates. I know! I know! Everything costs money.
They have one picnic table in the little section, one picnic table in the big dog section.
Have garbage cans for trash and dog waste INSIDE the dog sections.
Overall? A really nice job. I hope improvements will continue.
(I studied their work. I think they started w/​little section, made a mistake on fence reaching the ground, learned from mistake & did it right in big & winter section. I would love to see fence repositioned lower in little dog section, identical to everywhere else, then little dogs can’t get out. Might have to put something at the bottom where the gaps are due to how fence was put together, but still… not a huge, expensive fix. Once that is done my review will immediately go to 5 stars!
NICE JOB, all!!!